Having a fondness for OS/2 I was elated to have an update being released by Arca Noae in ArcaOS. I waited patiently, checking multiple times daily, for weeks during their countless delays, until the official release where I immediately purchased by own copy of the new OS/2.

I had even purchased a Lenovo N580 for the purpose of running OS/2 on new hardware (eComStation doesn't run on the Lenovo). I burned the iso to a DVD and began the installation. Maybe 15 minutes later the installation was completed and two reboots later I had a desktop. Success! Now I could browse the Internet without much worry about the silent predators known as Windows viruses and malware. I click on Firefox, the browser opens. I type in my URL. No page displays.

I check the network setup and it has an IP but I couldn't ping my gateway. I rebooted. Ping worked. Started Firefox, typed in a URL. No page. Ping of the gateway didn't work.

ArcaOS and eComStation work fine on my IBM Thinkpad T60's. Installed ArcaOS on my HP desktop. Successful installation. Start Firefox. Type in URL. Network gone. I found the HP desktop and the Lenovo N580 laptop both have Atheros chipsets.

Opened a ticket with Arca Noae. Nothing for 3 weeks. Had me try changing the setup in a config file and still dropped the network. Nearly 6 weeks later I'm asked to change the cable or maybe I have a bad port on my switch. Unlikely since I used the same cable in the same port for another laptop with another OS, but I bought a new cable and plugged it into a different port.
Same problem. A few days later I'm asked to reset my router because that could potentially be the problem according to tech support. Reset the router (FreeBSD running IPF) and same problem continues. More time goes by and I'm asked to create a TCP dump. A few days go by and I'm asked to change my firewall rules because "possibly" IPv6 traffic is confusing the IP stack on ArcaOS.

It must be noted that I currently run: OpenIndiana, Minix3, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan9, and Windows 8 going through the same router without any problems. I have also ran OpenBSD, SmartOS, Solaris 11, 9front, Inferno, Windows 10 successfully going through the same router without any problems. Plus I stream Hulu and Netflix to my TV. In addtion, I have two IBM Thinkpad T60's which have eComStation and ArcaOS installed and they both work perfectly fine and no network problems.

It has been two months since the ticket was opened. The last update it was said by tech support the ArcaOS MMALC driver is used successfully by others. I don't dispute that. But when that driver is used with an Atheros chipset then network problems occur (at least on my two machines with Atheros). Given that no network problems exist on the T60 but they do with Atheros chipset machines seems to give credence to my diagnosis.

That's what I always say about closed operating systems. It's interesting what you say about Atheros and SmartOS. Is your Atheros card a WiFi card too? Seems SmartOS does not get along with Atheros Wifi.

I'm kindof into the arcane OS myself. Have used Minix3 quite a bit. Did they ever fix their WiFi stack?

The HP desktop has a built in Atheros Ethernet that works fine with SmartOS. My problems are with ArcaOS which is the revamped OS/2.

ArcaNoae doesn't seem interested in finding a solution to the problem of having my network drop with any network activity. I have two machines that both have built in Ethernet using an Atheros chipset and both do the same thing. I kept getting, change the cable, change the switch port, recycle your router. The last thing they wanted was for me to change firewall rules. Everything works on the machines in question with other operating systems, only theirs is the one with a problem. But they won't acknowledge it or provide a fix.

One would think a company selling a commercial product and offers support would do more, but they are not. Which is why I cannot suggest people pay $129 for something that might not work, and possibly get little or no support. BTW, there were other tickets in their queue for other network adapters not working.

Not sure where you got SmartOS, but it is great.

ArcaOS, the new OS/2, not so great. Maybe if I could get it to work on something other than my Thinkpad T60 I'd have a better impression. But to claim it works on new hardware, when it doesn't, and support that won't acknowledge the problem leaves me with a poor view of it.

Acquired an old Dell Dimension B110 and installed 2 other NICs. Good news when ArcaOS booted during installation it found 3 network adapters, but the bad news it said there was a conflict with two and I needed to select either (1..2), however, no keys worked. So I abandoned ArcaOS on that machine. Good news is that I finally was able to install Inferno OS from Bell Labs natively on a machine.

The second machine I recently acquired was an old HP G62 laptop. I had wiped the drive previously with DBAN and ArcaOS needed to fix the disk because it couldn't find a partition. This is normal and requires a reboot. Well, when the machine came back up it said there was a disk problem and that was that.

But eComStation did install on the HP G62, so after that and with a formatted JFS partition I thought I would be able to install ArcaOS onto the laptop. Installation seemed to go fine, but at boot it couldn't find a file and stopped.

The last update from the company selling this "thing" was still telling me to change my firewall rules because that is the problem. Even though I informed them I can run SmartOS, Windows, Plan9, 9front, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenIndiana, Minix3, OmniOS, all without any problem. Even ArcaOS on my old Thinkpad T60 works, but they kept telling me to change my firewall.

When the Dell wouldn't install I updated the ticket and they didn't even reply. After the HP laptop I told them to close the ticket and they immediately closed it, then had the audacity to inform me that I needed to open a new ticket for each problem on each machine. Therefore I needed to open 2 more tickets. Even though my ticket I had open was 4 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I acquired another machine I thought I'd attempt to install ArcaOS onto. This is an HP Pavilion desktop with a Core i3 and originally had Windows 7 installed, so not recent, but not ancient.

Trying to boot it asks for hard drive or the ArcaOS installation DVD which is selected, then it looks like it will boot and arrives at a prompt to install the ArcaOS installation media!?!

Again, DO NOT waste your time and money with this clunker. It doesn't work as advertised and the so-called support is pathetic. Had a ticket open for 4 months and instead of addressing the problem that the Atheros driver isn't working, they ignored it for weeks on end, or told me to do stupid things like change a cable, or telling me to change my firewall rules.

Support: Atrocious.
Price: Outrageous since it doesn't work.

Attempted install on 3 laptops and 3 desktops.

2 desktops won't install. 1 has an Atheros chipset that the company won't recognize as a problem and fix it.
1 laptop has an Atheros chipset and they won't acknowledge it. 2 laptops won't install.

Sold as "works on modern hardware." False claim. Works on specific hardware only.

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"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." -Philip K. Dick

They released a new version, 5.0.2, and I was hesitant about renewing my subscription since my previous efforts, time and money were wasted, but nonetheless I went for it.

I purchased a subscription but there was no download link, so I sent an email to sales@ and had a reply the next day I purchased a subscription for the IBM OS/2 release. They refunded my money and I bought the correct subscription the second time.

After it downloaded I burned the ISO to dvd and booted my Lenovo laptop with the Atheros NIC that always had a problem and dropped all network connectivity when it received any activity. After the installation I fired up SeaMonkey and browsed with multiple tabs with no problem, so I started a ping and that worked. So I tried more network connectivity and couldn't get it to drop.

So a couple of weeks later I have had no problem with the NIC and am using it with a lot of network activity and it appears they fixed the problem. Whatever it was.